$245 million face-lift for S.D. flattop

Crew members from the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson man their General Quarters station during a fire drill earlier this month simulating an aircraft fire on the flight deck of the Vinson, which is stationed at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado. Nelvin C. Cepeda • U-T

Crew members from the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson man their General Quarters station during a fire drill earlier this month simulating an aircraft fire on the flight deck of the Vinson, which is stationed at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado. Nelvin C. Cepeda • U-T

That schedule faltered this month when the Pentagon announced that the Truman will not deploy because of budget shortfalls.

The Vinson has endured a busy and historic run since January 2010, when it emerged from a nearly five-year nuclear overhaul. The flattop left a Virginia shipyard just in time to be dispatched at top speed in response to Haiti’s devastating earthquake.

In April 2010, the ship arrived at its new home in San Diego Bay. Next came two half-year deployments in the space of 18 months.

During the first, the Vinson was famously the location of the burial at sea of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden shortly after his death in May 2011.

It was a strange, top-secret distinction. No one was allowed to discuss it when the carrier returned home the next month.

In November 2011, the ship hosted the first-of-its-kind Veterans Day Carrier Classic, when the flight deck was transformed into a basketball court for a collegiate game.

It was a national spectacle, with gathering rain clouds creating a cotton-candy sunset for the ESPN television audience. President Barack Obama and the first lady attended.

But it was also a lot of work for the Vinson crew, which departed on their next deployment a few weeks later. The ship returned home in May.

It was in port for the rest of 2012, but there was still much to do.

“You see the shiny paint, but you don’t see the miles of pipe that was corroded and deteriorating that we replaced in the propulsion plants,” Whalen said.

“You don’t see the overhauls we did for the catapults. At least two of the catapults came completely out of their track, down to the bare trough. All the associated machinery came all the way out and was renovated and put back in place.”

Now the Vinson crew will work on re-establishing sea qualifications after months in port. The ship will be ready for its next deployment in 2014, if geopolitics and the federal budget call for it.